


15 Minutes in the Life of Tony Stark

by Staring_at_starry_skies (eleanor_jane)



Series: 15 Minutes Of Their Lives [3]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Human Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Hurt Edwin Jarvis, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Pepper Potts Feels, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 12:44:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9324161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleanor_jane/pseuds/Staring_at_starry_skies
Summary: Tony Stark, during the fifteen most important moments in his life. From the first robot to plastic hospital chairs and the mysterious white powder a woman gave him with a grin, to becoming a hero and creating a monster.Mentions of drug use and kidnapping."Jarvis is diagnosed with cancer. He plays card games through two rounds of chemo, and his wife’s hair goes grey and her face taught. Tony would sleep in the plastic chair by his side, comforted by the steady beep of the heart monitor and clutching some prototype for a machine that would help people some day."





	

I  
He turns towards his dad, opening up his chubby little arms and waddling towards Howard with a toothless grin. His dad picks him up and spins him around and Tony’s gleeful giggles resonates through the house.

II  
His third birthday and his parents are busy, but Jarvis bakes him a cake with his name on it and Tony, Jarvis and his wife go to the zoo.

III  
He spends his eighth birthday in a dingy cell, shaking in his expensive jeans and praying his dad will pay the ransom demand so the scary men won’t do the things they said they would on the video.

IV  
Ten years old and he’s just created his first robot. He’s only programmed it to do his math homework and added a robotic arm capable of holding a pencil and there are still loads more to add to it, but Jarvis is proud and his dad is even prouder.

V  
Jarvis is diagnosed with cancer. He plays card games through two rounds of chemo, and his wife’s hair goes grey and her face taught. Tony would sleep in the plastic chair by his side, comforted by the steady beep of the heart monitor and clutching some prototype for a machine that would help people some day.

VI  
Jarvis gets the all clear and Tony is across the globe, hearing the news through a tinny sound system. That night he indulges in the expensive white powder someone offers him and his dad tells him he’s ashamed over the hospital phone.

VII  
One moment in the middle of a night, his world is ripped apart. It’s a car screech and ten minutes’ warning before the tabloids scream his parents’ deaths for everyone to hear.

VIII  
He attends their funeral and doesn’t cry. There is a huge ceremony and people he never met read poems his dad would have hated.

IX  
Three months in a cave in Iraq. He learns desperation with a chest full of shrapnel and learns survival with a car battery.

X  
He is betrayed, and falls in love with Pepper Potts.

XI  
His dear dad’s legacy screws him over once again as he starts to fall apart at the seams, fighting an enemy he never chose to make. Everything is collapsing and he doesn’t even know if he’s a good man anymore.

XII  
He carries a nuke into space and says goodbye to the woman he loves. He survives, but escapes even more fractured than before.

XIII  
God, he almost loses her. Pepper Potts falls past him and he doesn’t catch her, he lets her down again. His suits become fireworks as he tries to piece himself back together and hold her tighter.

XIV  
Ultron. He tries to save the world and nearly destroys it. He murders people: people he doesn’t even know the name of, innocent people guilty only of existing in the same damn time he does. That’s what happens if too much power is given to one man, that’s what happens. He memorises the name of every single person his creation hurt.

XV  
His world is cold without Pepper Potts. She packs her bags and the words abandon him for a bit. He’s a stammering, confused mess. He’ll sign his name; he’ll sign his free will and power away for a free conscience. People like him and the Avengers are dangerous; he sees that even when Saint Steve doesn’t. And if others won’t pay their price and sign away their right to act without conscience, then there will be war.


End file.
